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USS Essex
|registry = NCC-173 |owner = |operator = Starfleet |status = Destroyed |datestatus = 2167 }} The USS Essex (NCC-173) was a 22nd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet. In 2167, the Essex was commanded by Bryce Shumar. The Essex operated out of Starbase 12, under the sector command of Admiral Uttan Narsu. It carried a crew of 229. That year, the Essex visited the class M moon of Mab-Bu VI. There, it was overtaken by non-corporeal criminals from the Ux-Mal star system, who had been imprisoned on the moon centuries before, attempted to escape by possessing the Essex crew. The criminals nearly escaped their imprisonment on board the Essex, but the ship was incapable of eluding this moon's electromagnetic storms and it was destroyed with all hands. The ship's distress call continued to signal. In 2368, the detected the distress signal of the Essex, over two hundred years old, and investigated the moon. The criminals impersonated the crew of the Essex and attempted to take over the Enterprise, but were unsuccessful. ( ) Personnel This crew was active in 2167. * Captain Bryce Shumar * Commander Steven Mullen (first officer) * Lieutenant Morgan Kelly (security officer) Background information It should be noted that the appearance of Essex had not been established in canon. However, production staff fans, most notably Doug Drexler, Greg Jein, and Michael Okuda (in his and reference works in particular) have vigorously championed the appearance of the Daedalus-class – to which Essex was established to belong in "Power Play" – as derived from a 1964 early design concept by Art Director Matt Jefferies. Jein, on his own volition, constructed an Essex reference model for Okuda to photograph and photoshop, and who had it prominently featured in his works. As the official franchise has as of 2002 deemed the contents of Okuda's two works as "quasi-canon" (thereby becoming the only ones they consider as such from then on), it follows that the Daedalus-class appearance has attained this status as well. ( ) Okuda had the model, upon delivery by Jein, originally labeled (NCC-176) for its entry in the Chronology, before relabeling it as USS Essex, but felt no need to change its registry as he was aware that it would not be discernible in the small black and white pictures. Therefore the model was incorrectly labeled in the first 1994 edition of the Encyclopedia, though he had the ship endowed with the intended "NCC-173" registry, in both the individual entry (p. 94), as well as in his starship list (p. 320). Okuda has not corrected this for the Chronology and second and third editions of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, when he took new color photographs of the model, but by careful angling and lighting, the registry for Essex has remained obscured. For the fourth edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, new illustrations of the Daedalus-class starships were created. For further information on the model, see ''Daedalus''-class model. The name Essex might be derived from any one of several sources, though the reference book The Making of Star Trek, pages 164-165, made it very clear that Original Series producers D.C. Fontana and Robert Justman had the World War II aircraft carrier , in mind when they came up with their name list in the summer of 1967 as possible candidates for what they, at the time, still called the ''Starship''-class. In effect, an USS Essex nearly made the cut initially, as it was already referenced to in first script draft dialogue treatment, dated 30 September 1967, page 64, for the second season episode , which contained a line having Lieutenant Uhura state, :"Star Fleet Command confirms alien attack on the other starships, Sir. The enemy was defeated. Starships ''Essex and Eagle suffered heavy damage, but will make base." The reference, though, was dropped from the episode as aired. http://www.trekplace.com/article10.html See also in this respect NCC-1697. For more information, see for a list of additional possible name origins. Apocrypha The ''Essex received a mention in the Pocket ENT novel , as being one of the starships sent to help repair after its encounter with three Romulan-controlled Klingon warships over Draylax. The Essex was also featured in Starfleet: Year One, Beneath the Raptor's Wing, and A Choice of Futures, as well as in the reference book Star Trek: Federation - The First 150 Years. External link * de:USS Essex fr:USS Essex (NCC-173) ja:USSエセックス nl:USS Essex Essex